Magnetic and magnetotransport properties of layered TaCoTe₂ single crystals

Abstract

We present the synthesis of TaCoTe2 single crystals and systematical investigation of the physical properties of bulk crystals and thin flakes. The crystal shows a semiconducting behavior with temperature decreasing from room temperature and turn to a metallic behavior below 38 K. When magnetic field is applied, the temperature-dependent resistivity curves show an upturn below 10 K. Furthermore, we found that the TaCoTe2 single crystal can be easily exfoliated from the bulk crystal by micro-mechanical exfoliation method. Our measurements suggest that the nanoflakes have similar properties with the bulk crystal when the thickness is lowered to 18 nm.